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Newcastle United have successfully appealed Fabricio Coloccini's red card from Sunday's derby. Instead of an off-handed "oops, sorry", the successful appeal came along with an FA charge against the club for failing to control their players. You know, the ol' "Mistakes were made, but even though we have decided the decision was wrong, you don't get to express that opinion in a restrained manner in the heat of the moment" thing. The good news is that we ultimately get to replace one pedantic argument about rules with another. Text from the FA's official announcement follows:
An Independent Regulatory Commission found that the match referee had made an obvious error in dismissing the Newcastle United defender for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity during the game against Sunderland on Sunday 25 October 2015.
There is no point harping on about it as there is nothing to be done, but it is very curious that the FA have essentially admitted that Bobby Madley directly influenced the result on Sunday. There's not much to do about it besides sit back and chuckle.
The result of course means that Fabricio Coloccini, for better or for worse, will be available for this weekend's match against Stoke City.